President Donald Trump has plunged international trade relations and markets in a state of uncertainty with recent tariff statements, but he also thinks they will improve the excitement of the 2026 World Cup.
At a Friday press conference at the Oval Office with FIFA President Gianni Infantino, Trump was requested how current trade tensions, in particular with Canada and Mexico, which are the other host countries with the United States in 2026, can affect the World Cup.
“I think it will make him more exciting,” said Trump. “Tension is a good thing, it makes it much more exciting.”
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President Donald Trump and FIFA (International Football Association Federation) President Gianni Infantino speak in the Oval Office of the White House after having signed a decree for a working group linked to the FIFA World Cup in Washington, DC, on March 7, 2025. (Jim Watson / AFP)
This week, the Trump administration imposed 25% tariffs on the goods of Canada and Mexico, but then announced on Thursday a month of one month for the two countries on goods in accordance with the North American commercial pact.
The exemptions from the two largest American trade partners expire on April 2. Trump has also threatened to impose a global regime of reciprocal prices on all American business partners.
When Trump first announced prices on Mexico and Canada in early February, he ended up delaying them a month after concluding agreements with the two countries to help secure the North and South border.
However, the tension of the incident has always spread in sport during the NHL 4 Nations exhibition tournament from February 12 to 20. Canada fans have hooked US national anthem while fans of the United States have hooked Canadian national anthem before several games.
It started on February 13, when Montreal Canadian fans hooked the American national anthem after the recent threats from President Donald Trump impose prices in Canada while suggesting that the country should become the 51st American state.
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The United States striker Matthew Tkachuk (19) and team striker Brandon Hagel (38) were fighting in the first period in a 4 nations ice hockey match at the Bell Center. (Images Eric Bolte-Imagn)
The hoots caused a burst of fights between Canadian and Americans during the first meeting of the tournament between the two teams on February 15. The United States has won this 3-1 match.
The Canadian national anthem was then hué at TD Garden in Boston before a match of the 4 nations between Canada and Finland.
The United States and Canada then met in the final on February 20, and Boston’s American fans once again cut the Canadian national anthem, although with a lighter tone. Canada won the game on overtime, 3-2.
Since then, the hostile rhetoric between the two countries, including in sport, has only increased. NHL Games involving teams based in Canada and the United States have often presented hoots during the pre-match national hymns of the visiting team.
Fans of WWE elimination room In Toronto, Hue “The Star Spangled Banner” before the event last Saturday evening. Sports commentator Star Pat McAfee has loudly castigated Canadian fans for huae, and the country as a whole, in response when peacocking.
“It sucks in a way that it was in the terrible country of Canada which hoked our national anthem to start all this,” McAfee shouted at the diffusion table.
US President Donald Trump is expressed alongside the President of the International Football Football Federation (FIFA) Gianni Infantino after unveiling the 2025 World Cup trophy in the White House Oval Office on March 7, 2025, in Washington, the president of DC Trump signed an executive decree establishing an white chamber working group for the 2026 World Cup. (Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)
McAfee has since said that he had received death threats against her little daughter for the comments.
Canadian male football coach Jesse Marsch exploded Trump for his remarks “51st state”, calling them “insulting” on Wednesday. During the media day of the Concacaf Nations League, Marsch said that it was “ashamed” in the way Canada had been insulted by the president.
“If I have a message to our president, he is dismissed from ridiculous rhetoric about Canada being the 51st state,” said Marsch. “As an American, I am ashamed of the arrogance and contempt that we have shown one of our oldest, strongest and most faithful allies.
NHL legend Wayne Gretzky was also criticized by his Canadian colleagues for his apparent support in Trump. Trump recently said that he had asked Gretzky to become the next “Governor of Canada” after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that he would resign.
But after Gretzky expressed support for “Canada remaining a separate country, rather than becoming a 51st darling and magnificent state”, ” Trump told Gretzky a “free agent”.
